Jay-Z Voices Support for Meek Mill Following ‘Unjust and Heavy Handed’ Prison Sentence

After the news broke that rapper Meek Mill was sentenced to serve hard time for violating probation he was put on following a drug and weapons conviction in 2008. Mill had been arrested for misdemeanor assault back in March, and then again in August for reckless driving and reckless endangerment for a dirt-bike stunt filmed in Manhattan. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the charges stemming from the two arrests were ultimately reduced and Mill was able to enter a pretrial diversion program both times. In October, he pleaded guilty to the reckless driving charge, while the March assault charge was dropped entirely, the rapper being tasked with community service instead. Despite the reduction and dismissal of the charges against him, Mill is now facing two-to-four years in a Pennsylvania state prison for probation violation, a fact many supporters find deeply unfair. Hip Hop mogul JAY-Z tends to agree and was one of the many to weigh in on Meek’s situation. He took to Facebook on Monday night (November 6) and called the judge’s decision “unjust and heavy handed.”

“The sentence handed down by the Judge—against the recommendation of the Assistant District Attorney and Probation Officer—is unjust and heavy handed,” Hov wrote. “We will always stand by and support Meek Mill, both as he attempts to right this wrongful sentence and then in returning to his musical career.”

Jay has spent much of the past year addressing what he and many other see as critical flaws in the judicial system, including the bail industry, which Jay himself dubbed “exploitative” and that critics point out unfairly penalizes those without the resources to pay. In the beginning of 2017, Jay-Z produced the Spike docuseries Time: The Kalief Browder Story, which explores the tragic real-life account of Browder’s three-year imprisonment in New York’s Rikers Island without a trial.